HARFA ends successfully

The 4th annual HARFA Rugby Extravaganza ended successfully at the Havelock Sports Club ground in Colombo last Sunday. The two-day rugby carnival, which featured competitions under eight age categories, attracted closer to 900 players from the ages of 10 to 50.

An overall count of as many as 70 rugby teams competed with great enthusiasm despite age differences. 52 teams took part in the schools tournament which had competitions for Under-14s, 16s and 18s. Players from the age categories of Under-12s and 14s too participated in the tournament which was played as friendly games. In addition 14 teams played in the Over-35 tournament for the Evergreens and four teams competed in the Open category.

Isipathana College took major honours in the tournament for the schools when their young ruggerites clinched the Under-18 and Under-16 championships in contrasting finishers. Science College Mt. Lavinia won the championship of the Under-14 age group. The main event of the schools tournament, the Under-18 final was played between Isipathana and the HARFA team. Eventually Isipathana prevailed to win the final while their skipper Chathura Dilshan winning the best players’ award in that age category.

The Under-12 and Under-10 age classes were played under carnival atmosphere but as friendlies sans trophies or certificates. The matches of these two age categories were the cynosure of the large gathered to witness the Rugby Extravaganza on July 6 and 7.

The Over-35 tournament was won by Old Cambrians who dished out better rugby than the other 13 rival teams while the Black Hawks emerged as the best team among the four to win the Open tournament.

The organisers of the tournament, the Hisham Abdeen Rugby Football Academy better known as HARFA made all ef- forts to conduct its fourth annual Rugby Extravaganza which included an Evergreens category for the Over-35s for the first time.

The legendary Hisham Abdeen who is also the Director of Coaching of HARFA said, “It’s was a long intended plan of HARFA to field an Over-35 Veteran’s tournament consisting after requests made by many to invite former national and club players. Eventually this segment of the Rugby Extravaganza could be termed as a great success for a first-timer. It helped create a platform to share camaraderie among past legends. Overall the two-day event was a great success and we hope to build this event with more success in time to come”. The President of Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union, Asanga Seneviratne graced the occasion as the Chief Guest while Jan Vlaskamp and Chaminda Rupasinghe, who are members of the HARFA advisory board were present as Guests of Honour at the event.

Abdeen, who represented Sri Lanka from 1980 to 1993, formed his rugby academy the HARFA in December 2008 along with former national players Marco de Silva, Tony Wimalasuriya and Kamal Jayewardene. The rugby academy, since its inception, has helped many schools, clubs and even the national grid by contributing its players. During the past five years HARFA also has been engaged in many activities related to rugby and rugby development.